SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Oil futures marked a fifth-straight losing session on Monday as the prospects of rising Libyan oil supplies helped push prices to their lowest settlement in about five weeks.

Natural-gas futures, meanwhile, finished little changed, but some spot prices for the heating fuel rallied in the Northeast as U.S. demand hit a record, according to Platts.

February crude oil
US:CLG4
fell 53 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $93.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices settled at their lowest level since Nov. 29 and including Monday’s decline, have tallied a five-session loss of nearly 7%, according to data from FactSet, tracking the most-active contracts. Still, prices had touched highs well above $94 on Monday.

“It looks as though the market can’t decide whether to trade down on weak Chinese growth or up on the problems in Iraq and uncertainty about Libya,” said James Williams, an energy economist at WTRG Economics. “A peaceful Iraq and Libya combined with an accord that lifted Iran’s embargo would be very bearish and require [the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries] to impose real quotas.”

AFP/Getty Images

For now, putting pressure on oil prices was the possible increase of Libyan oil output, as protesters ended a months-long blockade at a major oil field in the country’s south. Libya’s National Oil Corp. said Sunday the southern El Sharara oil field had restarted with production of 60,000 barrels per day and would possibly increase the output in the days ahead. Two other oil fields in the east also reopened about a week ago after being blocked for several months. Global oil-supply numbers “will likely also see some upside in 2014, as news that Libya’s El Sharara field has resumed production demonstrate,” said Matt Parry, senior oil analyst at the International Energy Agency in Paris.

On ICE Futures Monday, February Brent crude
LCOG4, +0.56%
fell 16 cents, or 0.2%, to end at $106.73 a barrel, retreating from a high near $108.

Brent’s earlier advance was a “reflection to the largely supportive euro-zone macroeconomic numbers,” Parry said. “Economic activity in Europe is rebounding, with the composite PMI coming in at 52.1 in December, thus well above the key-50 ‘expansionary’ threshold, supporting projections of European oil demand.”

The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Friday reported a larger-than-expected drop of 7 million barrels in crude inventories for the week ended Dec. 27. However, some analysts said it wasn’t enough of a surprise to turn prices higher.

U.S. natural-gas demand at a record

Back on Nymex, futures prices for natural gas finished little changed, but some spot prices for the commodity rallied in the Northeast during Monday trading, according to Platts.

Natural gas for February delivery
US:NGG14
ended little changed, up less than 0.1% at $4.31 per million British thermal units.

But as parts of the U.S. experienced their coldest weather in decades, some spot prices for natural gas in the Northeast jumped almost $60 per million Btus during Monday trading, according to Bentek Energy.

The oil and natural-gas analytics unit of Platts said U.S. natural-gas demand set a record Monday, with total natural gas nominated to consumers rising to 125.7 billion cubic feet per day — 3.4 bcf higher than the previous record set on Jan. 16, 2009. Demand on Tuesday could be just as high, and “may set another record, cresting the 130” bcf per day mark, Bentek said.

Meanwhile, among the petroleum products traded on Nymex, February gasoline
US:RBG4
slipped by less than a half cent to $2.65 a gallon, and February heating oil
US:HOG4
was almost flat at $2.94 a gallon.

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